Yesterday The Venture Reality Fund – or ‘The VR Fund’ for short – released its first virtual reality (VR) landscape for the European market, showcasing numerous companies in Europe who are now invested in developing VR infrastructure, applications, as well as tools and platforms. The landscape was created in collaboration with French VR and WebVR consulting and development agency LucidWeb, and its purpose is to show a general view on the VR ecosystem’s growth in Europe.
According to the official press release, the landscape was created based on research and information acquired during meetings with European VR representatives and mentions that nearly 300 virtual reality startups have been identified and reviewed, while 116 startups have been selected for inclusion in the first “VR Landscape Europe” release. The VR Fund lists a number of highlights for the growing European VR market, including the fact that the VR gaming industry remains the most competitive VR segment backed by well-funded companies such as Iceland’s CCP Games, UK’s nDreams, Sweden’s Resolution Games, and again, Iceland’s Solfar Studios. In Europe, it appears that the VR field is gaining some traction in the real estate field as well, with a couple of real estate companies – including Diakrit in Sweden and TheConstruct in the Netherlands – already offering online VR content and presentations for potential customers. The press release also highlights a couple of companies who make use of VR technologies for healthcare, fitness, medical training, treatments for anxiety and Asperger’s syndrome, as well as physical rehabilitation. These are Amsterdam-based MDLinking and Spanish-based Psious.
The VR Fund also mentions that although Europe experienced slow initial growth in the VR segment, the old continent has been catching up over the past couple of years and the VR segment is now booming in the region. The press release makes mention of France taking the lead in virtual reality development in continental Europe and further reveals that over 50% of companies included in the landscape are based in France, Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The landscape includes the names of 26 VR firms in the UK, 19 VR startups in France, 11 in Germany, and 9 VR companies in Sweden. Meanwhile, anywhere between one and six VR startups currently exist in The Netherlands, Russia, Iceland, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Finland, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Austria, Norway, Estonia, Denmark, Croatia, Ireland, Latvia, Belarus, Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland. Although the VR gaming segment seems to dominate the landscape, The VR Fund clarifies that the gaming segment is “surely challenged” by a fairly large number of VR companies focusing on user input and the creation of 3D tools.
